The rower, who also played in the same school rugby team as actor Hugh Grant, has never regretted abandoning the sport in which he excelled. He partnered Britain's five-times Olympic champion to his first two golds, in Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul in 1988. Now 46, he runs a removals firm based in London.

That year, 1984, marked the moment when British rowing finally got its act together and I knew, when I joined up with Martin Cross, Richard Budgett, Adrian Ellison and Steve Redgrave, that we would be a good coxed four. We beat East Germany, the reigning world champions, early in the year, so we were aware that when we went to Los Angeles we would be in with a good chance of gold, even before the Soviet bloc's boycott of the Games.

The only boat that we were worried about was the Americans. We hadn't raced against them before, but we figured that if we stayed in touch with them early on, we would come through in the second half of the race - which we did.

What followed our triumph was bizarre: I was married a week later so the celebrations doubled up as a kind of extended stag do and when I returned home I had all sorts of offers coming in.

I went to civic receptions and appeared on A Question of Sport, which was a great experience because I had watched the show since I was a kid. Unfortunately, the boat broke up very quickly: Richard Budgett had put his career as a doctor on hold and wanted to return to that; Steve wanted to race on his own; and, although Martin was interested in racing as a pair, I wasn't sure the chemistry was right. I went into unofficial retirement.

I started rowing again for two reasons. First, rowing had been included in the 1986 Commonwealth Games and it struck me that if I competed in that then I would have a great chance to complete the set of Olympic, world and Commonwealth titles. Second, there was the fact that the East Germans hadn't taken part at LA.

Somebody suggested that Steve and I should try out together. I think we met in a greasy spoon in Putney to discuss the idea. When we got out on the water, I felt that things clicked immediately, even though I knew Steve was keeping his options open. From there, we won the world championships together in 1987.

The Seoul Olympics, in 1988, was the first time that either of us had been to South Korea. Those Games were a bit dull, apart from the Ben Johnson scandal when the Canadian sprinter had his 100 metres gold medal removed after testing positive for steroids. The country was rather dreary and, because all the nations from East and West were now taking part, security was omnipresent. Both Steve and I knew that if we rowed to our ability we would triumph. Although we won the coxless pairs comfortably and the atmosphere was a little flat, that gold was more satisfying than the first because everyone in the world was competing.

When we subsequently chose to go our separate ways, the press tried to make out that there had been a clash of personalities. But that simply wasn't the case. In truth, Steve and I were different people with different lives and we no longer speak. Ironically, the one person with whom I keep in touch from those days is Martin Cross, with whom I used to have the most arguments.

I did a year of coaching in France after I retired, but my involvement with the sport ceased after that. When Steve and Matthew won their gold at Barcelona in 1992, I was staying in a house a few miles away. But I had no idea their event was taking place so near and I missed it.

Now I run a removals firm that operates across the south-east of England. Some years ago, my daughter Aimee came across my name in a book at school. It was a book about the Olympics and she wanted to know why I was in it. So I told her for the first time about my Olympic successes. It wasn't that I had been hiding what I achieved from her. Rather, it was that she was only eight and it hadn't seemed relevant to mention it before. But it was quite a touching moment for me when we did finally speak about it.